Claude Frollo

Claude Frollo (died 1482) was the Minister of Justice of the Kingdom of France under King Louis XI of France. He was known for his piety and his xenophobic campaign to eradicate gypsies in France.

Biography
Claude Frollo was highly knowledgeable in his youth, but his parents died of the plague, and most of the money gained by his fief as the Archbishop of Josas went to his brother Jehan's alcoholism. He later served as Court Judge, and was appointed Minister of Justice under King Louis XI of France. Frollo was religiously pious and ruthless, and he had a strong disliking for gypsies, travelers who illegally came to France. In 1462 he ambushed a group of gypsies and killed a woman among them, but the Archdeacon of Notre Dame Cathedral forced him to raise her deformed son that he attempted to kill, as he convinced him that he had murdered an innocent woman and needed to atone for his sins. He named him "Quasimodo", as he found him on the first Sunday after Easter; babies born then were quasi modo geniti infantes.

Quasimodo grew into a kind but isolated man by the time that he was twenty, although he grew up alone in the cathedral under Frollo and was sequestered due to his deformed looks. He decided to attend the Feast of Fools that year, 1482, but Frollo's men under Captain Phoebus de Chateaupers started a riot when the crowd celebrated him, and he was returned to the cathedral. Another gypsy woman, Esmeralda, was captured by Phoebus and also imprisoned inside of the cathedral due to practicing witchcraft. Quasimodo helped Esmeralda escape, and Frollo became attracted to her, praying to the Virgin Mary to save him from damnation for his attraction to her. He began a manhunt for her across the city, razing several buildings, and he had Phoebus sentenced to death for defying him. Phoebus was wounded, but Esmeralda rescued him, and they headed to the Cour des Miracles, a slum for all sorts of people, including gypsies.

Frollo tricked Quasimodo into leading him to the court by bluffing and saying that he was ready to attack; he followed Quasimodo when he headed to the Cour des Miracles to warn the gypsies. Phoebus released the gypsies and rallied the people of Paris against Frollo, who planned to burn Esmeralda at the stake. Quasimodo poured molten copper onto the streets to ensure that nobody entered the cathedral, and Frollo fell off of a balcony of the cathedral while chasing Quasimodo, falling to his death in the copper.